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Chapter 27
‘Your Grace, I hope you don’t feel too guilty toward me. This is not your fault.’
‘To be honest, I don’t completely fail to understand Lady Croeta. Having such a wonderful fiancé like you, how could she not feel anxious? So please, don’t worry about it. That’s what I wanted to tell you, even though I knew you were busy.’
Clonay readily extended her forgiveness.
That only made Kazerre feel even more remorseful. Every time he looked at her, the guilt he had been persistently ignoring seemed to grow like a snowball, pressing down on him.
It wasn’t just guilt toward Clonay. It was far too great for that.
Perhaps it was the burden of everything he had long turned away from, he thought.
But even if he were to relay his conversation with Clonay word for word, would Aveline really back down so easily?
‘Not a chance.’
Kazerre scoffed inwardly.
No matter what he said, Aveline would never accept it.
Her interrogation of him was no different from whipping a disobedient beast until it bowed its head in submission. It had always been that way.
Kazerre pressed his lips shut. If a storm was inevitable, all he could do was hope it passed quickly.
Deliberately avoiding her gaze, he slowly raked his coarse hand through his hair. His long fingers sifted through the dark strands, which fell once again over his smooth forehead, casting a shadow.
As she watched his silence, Aveline slowly parted her lips. Her lips, swollen red from being bitten, looked vivid and alluring, as if stained with blood.
“Why is our Duke saying nothing?”
“……”
“Is there some reason you can’t answer right away?”
“……”
“Don’t tell me… you actually love that woman?”
She forced the words out, twisting her tongue and squeezing her throat, and found herself feeling utterly pathetic.
She knew it was a foolish question—more foolish than tearing into her own flesh. Yet, knowing this, she still couldn’t hold back.
Because, in the end, this was the core of it all.
She had thrown around all sorts of trivial reasons, spinning her words in circles, but in truth, only one thing mattered to Aveline.
The truth of Kazerre Evuteren—that he had never loved her, not even for a single moment.
“Answer me! Kazerre Evuteren!”
Aveline glared at him with wide, blazing eyes. The faint candlelight flickered violently atop her trembling, delicate shoulders.
Kazerre felt a sense of déjà vu. This was one of Aveline’s long-standing tactics—pushing him into extreme situations to test him.
Even though she knew he would ultimately deny it, she still had to hear it from his own mouth.
Even though she knew better than anyone that it wasn’t true, she kept prodding him, testing his limits. And every time she did, Kazerre was seized by the sudden urge to affirm her words simply.
And now, his patience—long since exhausted—finally gave way to impulse.
“So what if I do?”
“…What?”
“If I do, then what? Will you kill her now? Or me?”
Slap!
The sharp sound of skin being struck rang out, and Kazerre’s head turned to the side.
It was a forceful slap, one hard to believe had come from such a small frame.
“Ha…”
Still facing away, Kazerre lifted a hand to touch his burning cheek.
Perhaps her nails had scratched him because a stinging sensation spread across his skin, followed by the warm, sticky trickle of blood and the faint scent of iron.
Slowly, he straightened his head. His violet eyes, devoid of a single emotion, darkened like a lifeless void.
With those same eyes, he once again had to look upon Aveline Croeta—someone he had never, even once, wanted.
Unlike Kazerre, who had turned as cold as ice, Aveline’s golden eyes trembled incessantly.
She hadn’t hesitated at all when striking Clonay, yet now she was shaking over such a feeble slap, one that hardly even hurt him. It was both pathetic and contemptible.
“I… I…”
Aveline mumbled something incoherent, her voice quivering miserably before falling silent.
Then, as if she couldn’t believe she had actually struck him, she clutched her trembling right hand, as if trying to hide it.
“I… You… You can’t… That’s impossible…”
Her stammering excuses, as if she had been betrayed, soon transformed into accusations against him.
But, truly, this was impossible.
Not Kazerre Evuteren. He couldn’t do this to her.
“You have to love me! That’s our fate…! That’s why I love you, so why—”
Aveline’s voice, which had risen to a desperate scream, gradually faded.
Her golden eyes, gleaming even in the darkness, were already unfocused. To Kazerre, everything about her felt like a whispered curse from a witch.
In the end, she declared, he had to love her. That it was inevitable.
Like a shackle clasping his ankle, a collar tightening around his neck—fate ensnared him entirely like prey caught in a spider’s web, bound and powerless.
Not only his life, but even his heart—he was never to escape her grasp.
It was repulsive.
Like breaking free from heavy chains, Kazerre roared in defiance.
“Enough already!”
His sharp, chiseled face twisted savagely, baring raw emotion. He looked utterly enraged, yet somehow, he also looked unbearably sad.
Faced with his roar, Aveline’s heart jolted and plummeted to the ground.
He was in agony. It was something closer to pain than emotion.
She was the one who had hurt Kazerre.
The moment she realized that, she couldn’t even breathe.
Afraid that her weak breath might pierce his eardrums. Afraid that the breeze stirred by her feeble movements might scrape his skin.
Unlike her, frozen as if time had stopped for her alone, Kazerre, overwhelmed by emotion, let his fury burst forth uncontrollably.
“How much longer do you need to shackle me before you’re satisfied? Who I love has nothing to do with you. No matter what my feelings are, in the end, you’ll still be my wife! Because that’s the fate you hold so dear!”
Only after pouring out everything inside him did Kazerre belatedly pause.
A pale face, drained of all color, devoid of expression, instantly captured his gaze.
Her shattered eyes trembled like broken glass. She looked like a small, fragile creature bleeding for the first time in its life. In that moment, Kazerre felt like the worst kind of person, the kind who would kick a defenseless young animal.
It was a feeling that had always tormented him whenever he faced Aveline as his adversary, but never had it been this intense.
Even though everything he had said was nothing but the unembellished truth, why did it feel as if he had strung together cruel words he didn’t even mean just to wound her?
It was as if his body moved awkwardly, controlled by an unfamiliar emotion. His head throbbed, and his breath came ragged.
He had never lost control like this before.
He had thought it would bring some relief, but all that lingered was a foul, unsettling aftertaste. It only made him feel more wretched.
As Kazerre took deep breaths to regain his composure, Aveline’s eyes, which had swelled with emotion like a raging tide, dried up as if they had never been affected at all.
Her lips, the only part of her pale face that held any color, parted slowly.
“…You’re right.”
Her voice was as dry as a desert without rain.
“That is our fate.”
As if it were the only truth, Aveline enunciated each word clearly.
And with just that single affirmation, the storm of emotions that had nearly consumed Kazerre vanished in an instant.
‘Of course. There’s no way you’d be hurt by mere words like these.’
Strangely, that weary realization quelled the raging turmoil inside him. As the turbulent waves settled, habitual ennui crept in.
“…If you’re done talking, leave.”
“Kazerre.”
“I’ll play my part as fate demands, just as you wish, so get out.”
His voice, worn raw with exhaustion, was cold and sharp.
He turned his head away completely as if he no longer wanted to see her.
More than his cruel dismissal, his blatant refusal to look at her left an unhealable wound in Aveline’s heart.
She wanted to plead with him, to cling to him, to beg him to look at her and not turn away.
If only she could see herself fully reflected in his eyes again… If only that could happen, she wouldn’t hesitate to destroy herself.
‘But in the end, I won’t be able to do that.’
It wasn’t a matter of pride. Did Aveline Croeta ever have any pride to show before Kazerre Evuteren? What a laughable thought.
She was merely desperate not to let him see her desperation.
Because even if he didn’t push her, she was already standing at the edge of a cliff…
“…Fine. Then I’ll expect you to keep your word.”
So in the end, the only words she could leave him with were these.
Before turning away, Aveline’s gaze lingered briefly on the wound on his cheek.
Committing to memory the man who stubbornly refused to look at her one last time, Aveline finally turned her back on him.
Her posture was straight, her stance composed—just from looking at her retreating figure, no one would ever guess how completely shattered she was inside.
To keep from staggering, she clenched her toes so tightly that they cramped, ensuring that he would never know just how much effort it took for her to stay upright.
“….”
Only after she had turned away did Kazerre finally lift his gaze to her.
As he watched her receding back, he found himself unconsciously wondering what expression she was wearing at that moment.
Yet, for some reason, he couldn’t picture a single one.
